Obama Toughens Up, Uses Beanbags

I have often questioned this Administration's seriousness in fighting crime. It happily went along with the Crack Dealers Relief Act (formally known as the Fair Sentencing Act); it appointed an Attorney General who gushes all over himself seeking the approval of the defense bar but can't decide where, or whether, to try terror mastermind KSM; and we have a DOJ that looks the other way at club-wielding thugs menacing a polling station.

This story, however, reaches the point of low comedy. Frankly, it sounds so bizarre that I have trouble believing it. But so far as I have been able to discover, the Administration does not deny it.

The story is, in short, that we are fighting the war on illegal immigration at the border, and its intimately related massive drug smuggling, with beanbags. Not too surprisingly, the opposition is not returning the favor, and is using guns. One of them killed a federal agent. If this has inspired any re-thinking of the Administration's policy, however, I haven't been able to discover that either.

Why a terrorist, or even a cat burglar, would take this crew seriously remains a mystery.

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Imagine being a family member of the agent killed knowing that he had to confront armed men with such a ridiculous non-lethal weapon. For goodness sakes, we let the city police use deadly force when threatened by vicious dogs who are presumably only armed with teeth and a nasty growl.

On the night of the deadly encounter, agents were trying to apprehend at least five suspected illegal immigrants. One agent, using thermal binoculars, spotted two men carrying rifles. When the group came close, at least one agent identified himself as police and ordered the men to drop their weapons.

Here's how the rest of the events are described in the FBI document:

"When the suspected aliens did not drop their weapons, two Border Patrol agents deployed 'less than lethal' beanbags at the suspected aliens. At this time, at least one of the suspected aliens fired at the Border Patrol agents. Two Border Patrol agents returned fire, one with his long gun and one with his pistol.

"Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot with one bullet and died shortly after. One of the suspected illegal aliens, later identified as Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was also shot."

So the agents knew they were armed, knew they had refused to put down their arms, and yet were still required to use nonlethal force?